Jones to Chase After National Record in 200

Marion Jones of Rio Mesa High, who successfully defended her titles in the girls’ 100 and 200 meters in the state track and field championships at Cerritos College last Saturday, will concentrate solely on the 200 in the inaugural National Scholastic outdoor championships that will be held today and Sunday at Birmingham High.

The meet, which will include approximately 300 athletes from 29 states, will start today at 3 p.m. with trials in all events except for the two-mile.

Sunday’s field-event finals will start at noon. The first running event will be the boys’ two-mile at 12:10 p.m.

Jones, who ran a personal best of 22.87 seconds to win the 200 in the Arcadia Invitational in April, will be gunning for the national high school record of 22.77 set by Chandra Cheeseborough of Ribault High in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1975.

Dave Hartman of Canyon and Deena Drossin of Agoura, the state champions in the boys’ and girls’ 3,200 meters, also will compete.

Hartman will drop to the mile, in which six entrants have run 4:12 or faster, and Drossin will run in the girls’ two-mile against a field that includes sophomore Monal Chokshi of New Jersey, who has run 9:40.1 in the 3,000 meters this season. Drossin has a best of 9:41.6.

Norman Greene of South Carolina, Dennis Black of Montana and Jeff Buckey of Bakersfield High are some of the leading entrants in the boys’ meet.

Greene, who has run the fastest high school time in the nation in the 110-meter high hurdles this year (13.57), is the favorite in an event that includes four sub-14-second performers.

The field could include a fifth if Issac Carson of Daly City Jefferson, who ran 13.67 to win the California state title, decides to compete at Birmingham instead of in the Golden West Invitational in Sacramento.

Black leads the nation with a best of 70 feet 10 inches in the shotput and Buckey, another California state champion, has thrown a nation-leading 210-1 in the discus.

Sophomore Amy Acuff (6-2 1/4 in the high jump) and fellow Texan Twylana Harrison (20-5 3/4 in the long jump) are the leading entrants in their respective events.

Juliana Yendork of Walnut, who won her third consecutive state title in the girls’ long jump and triple jump last week, will not compete because of an injury.